Field of the Art
The present disclosure relates to a mammography apparatus, control device, and mammography apparatus control method, and program storage medium.
Related Art
A mammography apparatus is known that captures radiographic images of a breast of a subject. During imaging of the breast of the subject using the mammography apparatus, the breast is fixed using a press plate.
Generally, when a breast is fixed by a press plate, often the subject feels pain due to the breast being stretched and strongly pressed, with this being a burden on the subject.
Therefore, the technology described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2013-013775 and Japanese National Publication No. 2008-513090 is known as conventional technology to reduce the burden on a subject.
JP-A No. 2013-013775 describes technology in which a gel pad is provided for one of, or both of, a press plate or a bucky. Japanese National Publication No. 2008-513090 describes technology in which at least a portion surrounding the breast is packed with a soft band.
However, since the way in which pain is experienced is not uniform and differs depending on the subject, depending on the firmness of the breast of the subject, the above conventional technology is not always able to effectively reduce the pain of a subject.